Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

13 reviews

roadesntoades's review

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

It be easy to say this is enemies to lovers or sunshine/moody or call it a coworker romance but it really isn’t. The romance is there sure but reading this(while I SO wanted to see them together) I also wanted to see how they interacted with everyone else and see how they realize their feelings. It was more like a romcom where the main characters are more afraid of their feelings than they are oblivious. Over the story was great, awesome fantasy elements, cute humor and all and all a solid read. Sometimes it felt like big reveals weren’t explained enough but that is also a bit of a personal preference. I am also now truly a victim of the book as I torturously wait for the sequel in August.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Violence, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Confinement, and Cursing

Minor: Toxic relationship and Stalking

rhi_'s review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, Death, and Torture

Minor: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

callidoralblack's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, and Cursing

Minor: Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Torture, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Confinement, and Sexual assault

abicaro17's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a hard book to rate. I really enjoy the concept and a lot of the plot points. An grumpy evil villain with a sunshine down on her luck assistant? Amazing! I think the issue is execution. The book is incredibly slow and any story advancement is basically in the last 50ish pages. The characters are also relatively flat and boring. Like Evie got a blip of development past the box she was shoved in during the last 5 pages. Becky and Blake are the worst examples of this because they're exclusively office suck up and the goofy guy. I tried to give this book grace because its part of a series but a lot of content could have been added to create context for a lot of things we're just like asked to believe. Like the Villian being a village terror (

he basically only beheads people who work for him, people trying to kill him, or anyone who disrespects people he cares about

), King Benedict being a "hero" in literally anyones eye??, or the lack of world building (where are they, how far away is the palace, is it like a fairytale kingdom or am I supposed to be imagined King's Landing from GOT?) This just needed more world building content, more contextual characterization, and a story restructuring for me.

Also when the Villian is like I love Evie! I literally closed my book and rolled my eyes. WDYM? This is a slow burn bro you aren't supposed to know that yet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Classism, Kidnapping, Body horror, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Blood, Confinement, and Grief

rehtaehwashere's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 

• What I liked: The story concept, the addition of magical creatures (really wasn't expecting that at all), family dynamics, a realistic feeling sibling relationship (even if it was minimal). The slow burn romance and will-they-won't-they, and the thirsting wasn't excessive at all
• What I disliked: the twist where
  the villain isn't actually the villain (that's what SOLD me on the book)
  , that the character was an obvious author insert plus the cringey quirkiness (typical romance-fantasy style) and inserting outfits randomly everywhere. Plus the
  <'dating her boss' /spoiler>  trope was kinda eh
• Overall thoughts: really cool story and I love the concept! Much better writing than fourth wing even if the characters are still the author-insert quirky girl thing which was less bothersome here because the story was interesting and was advertised PURELY as a romance so it is almost expected. Crabby male characters will always win me over because it's funny. The
  fake-trustworthiness of the 'good' people being pretty convincing 
    was good too.
• Recommend to a friend? Y

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Ableism

Minor: Death of parent, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

wickedgrumpy's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

2.5

It had promise but ended up lacking.  The pacing felt awkward, the pining was uninspired, the world building was confusing..  I could go on, but it wasn't a bad book.  Doubt I will continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Blood, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

maggies's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

No idea what was happening here. It did not come off as though it was written by a human. A strange mix of fantasy and contemporary that didn't work. The twists didn't twist. Calling the mmc "The Villain" was really weird the entire book - he could have had a more specific title and it would have worked way better. My interpretation: this is fanfic about a morally gray guy and the woman he loves, but it leaned too heavily toward the generic at the expense of anything truly interesting. Won't be finishing the series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Abandonment

tbrplaylist's review

dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Physical abuse, Bullying, Sexual assault, Blood, and Emotional abuse

amschelly153's review

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So much love for this book. Also, I made the mistake of not realizing it is a series. It’s beautiful and giggle out loud funny and tense and so good.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual violence, Violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Murder, Emotional abuse, Cursing, and Abandonment

cwritesu's review

I see what the author intended with this, but it wasn't for me. I wavered between bored and turned off. The fairytale setting with a modern twist is a favorite, but I've read many better versions. 

The biggest turn off was a fairytale setting acting like capitalist dystopia, and a protagonist who found no value in herself except "her gig job". I was over that immediately. 

Also, she had several justifications for why cold-blooded murder committed by her "hot boss" was fine, actually. Not a loss of human life or anything.

Sooo ... not for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Murder